From albacore to X-rays, there's no shortage of supposed dangers that pregnant women are often warned to avoid. But not everything is as dangerous as people might think. "There is a lot of mythology surrounding pregnancy," says Michael Katz, acting director of the March of Dimes. He and other experts share proven tips for minimizing the risk of birth defects and other pregnancy-related problems. Here, however, are some things women are commonly warned against?and the reassuring facts behind the conventional wisdom.
Doctors don't know what causes the majority of birth defects nor what parents can do to foolproof their offspring. But a study published this week, which noted a connection between children with defects and mothers who are obese, underscores the fact that expecting parents are far from powerless.
The dominoes keep falling on Wall Street. This morning, the stock market continued to lose its footing, as the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled nearly 200 points in early-morning trading before recovering some of those losses by midday. This unnerving volatility comes a day after the Dow plunged more than 387 points amid continuing troubles in housing.
AP - NASA discovered a worrisome gouge on Endeavour's belly soon after the shuttle docked with the international space station Friday, possibly caused by ice that broke off the fuel tank a minute after liftoff.
AP - The effort to find six coal miners caught in a cave-in took a disheartening turn Friday when a narrow hole drilled more than 1,800 feet down into the earth yielded no sounds of life and barely any oxygen.
AP - President Bush's program to rapidly detect biological attacks and disease outbreaks has been anything but speedy in getting started, the victim of bureaucratic bungling, a federal watchdog says.
An undocumented immigrant pleaded not guilty Friday to murder and related charges in the execution-style slayings of three college students in a schoolyard. At the time of the killings, Jose Carranza also faces separate charges of sexually assaulting and threatening to kill a 13-year-old, a girlfriend's child.
The body of a 2-year-old girl has been recovered from the rubble of the I-35W bridge collapse, a spokesman for the girl's family said Friday. Hana Sahal's mother, Sadiya Sahal, is also feared killed in the tragedy.
The young Iraqi known as Ronnie fears for his life. Nearly four years ago, as a recent high school graduate, he signed up to be an interpreter for the U.S. military. It seemed like a good job at the time. Today, he is a marked man.
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